The present invention relates to a golf practice net apparatus and, more particularly, to an easily assemblable and disassemblable golf practice net apparatus.
While actually played on a course extending over many acres, the game of golf readily lends itself to practice within relatively limited areas since the golfer requires only sufficient room to fully swing a golf club. Moreover, to more closely simulate the actual playing conditions during practice, the golfer can practice by swinging normally and driving or hitting an actual golf ball into a net or other appropriate ball restraining means positioned a few feet from the golfer. To this end, a number of portable golf practice net structures have been proposed, representative examples of which are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,001,795; 3,013,801; 3,197,208; 3,758,116; 3,986,719; 4,063,739 and 4,523,760.
However, these known golf practice net structures do not fully realize the benefits of ease of assembly and disassembly and ease of storage through reduced dimensions. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,760 to Bednarczuk, the golfer must pass a lacing member such as a lace or a cord through facing portions of the net to secure the net to the net frame and this securement method is understandably time-consuming and somewhat exacting. Likewise, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,739 to La Rose, although the deployment and storage of the net is somewhat facilitated by providing the capability to simply wrap the net about one of the net frame members, no capability is provided for reducing the elongate dimension of the net in its storage position so that carrying and storage of the disassembled golf net apparatus is hindered by the need to accommodate the uncollapsed elongate extent of the net.
Accordingly, the need exists for a golf practice net apparatus which allows the golfer to easily and rapidly assemble the apparatus and which significantly reduces the overall dimensions of the apparatus in its storage disposition.